Eventually Every Living Oscar Winner Will Be in a Superhero Movie

Cate Blanchett is officially in the “do absolutely whatever you want” part of her career, and the results thus far have been pretty tremendous. She has not one but two barn-burner performances in theaters right now, in Carol and Truth, she’s fresh off playing an all-time iconic Disney villain in Cinderella, and next year she’ll lend her voice to Jungle Book: Origins, because why not. Now she’s found a brand-new kind of credit to add to her massive resume: comic book movie.

Blanchett is far from the first Oscar-winning talent to join the Marvel universe, but we reserve a special level of excitement for the news that she’s in talks for Thor: Ragnarok. The Hollywood Reporter doesn’t know exactly which role she’d play, but with Tilda Swinton currently playing a centuries-old Tibetan man called The Ancient One in Marvel’s Doctor Strange literally anything seems possible. And for the woman who convincingly played Bob Dylan that’s exactly how we like it.

If you were to do a power ranking of the best Oscar winners to be in superhero movies, somewhere near the top would be Anthony Hopkins as Odin in the Thor movies, which means this franchise is already a few steps ahead of the rest in terms of knowing what to do with its major talents. Thor: Ragnarok, to be directed by Taika Waititi, isn’t due in theaters until November 2017, so here are the Oscar-adjacent talents we can look forward to joining the Marvel universe in the meantime: Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, and Don Cheadle all returning for next year’s Captain America: Civil War; Swinton, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the fall’s Doctor Strange; Bradley Cooper returning as the voice of Rocket Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy 2; Marisa Tomei making her debut as Aunt May in a brand-new Spider-Man Series; and then, finally, Blanchett in outer space, or wherever Thor: Ragnarok takes her. And that’s without even counting Ben Affleck, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Michael Shannon, and Holly Hunter over in the DC Universe for Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Who says the most important thing about superhero movies is the special effects and explosions? We’ll buy tickets for this crowd of people alone.